New encyclopedia of Texas, volume 1, Part 19

Author: Davis, Ellis A.
Publication date: 1926
Publisher: Dallas, Tex. : Texas development bureau, [1926?]
Number of Pages: 1416

USA > Texas > New encyclopedia of Texas, volume 1 > Part 19

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

In spite of the departure in July, 1918, of approxi- mately 45,000 troops who received their mail through the Fort Worth post office, the receipts have in- creased rather than diminished and continue to grow

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W. T. Waggoner Building. Twenty Stories of Offices

rapidly, due to the great influx of new population.

Fort Worth has one university, two class A col- leges, nine private and preparatory schools and twenty-seven public schools. Three new high school

buildings were recently completed at a cost of $6,000,000.

Fort Worth has more than 100 miles of paved streets; twenty-seven parks with an area of 6,427

The Texas, Fort Worth's New $4,000,000.00 Hotel, the Finest Hostelry in the South. There are Six Hundred Guest Rooms, all with Bath

acres and 64 miles of street railway within the city.

There are 100 churches in Fort Worth and ten of these occupy buildings which cost more than $100,000 each. The largest Sunday school in the country is located in Fort Worth.

The Shrine Mosque is located on Lake Worth, is the headquarters of Moslah Temple and was recently completed at a cost of $300,000.

Building operations recently completed in Fort Worth involve a total of twenty-five million dollars. According to careful estimates there are under con- struction seven hundred residences and apartment houses, sufficient to accommodate three hundred families. The latter group includes the Lucerne Apartment which was recently completed and which contains 119 three, four and five-room apartments.

The W. T. Waggoner Building, completed in 1921, offers the much needed office space. This building occupies a ground space of 75x95 feet, and is twenty stories in height with a double basement and is lo- cated at Eighth and Houston Streets.

The Farmers and Mechanics National Bank Build- ing, completed in the latter part of 1921, is a twenty- four story structure at Seventh and Main Streets. This building is one of the tallest in Texas and cost over $1,500,000. The bank owned part of the corner and recently purchased the balance. The dimensions of the building are 100x100 feet.

The Livingston Oil Corporation recently purchased a site on Third Street between Main and Commerce Streets and have announced their intention of build-

NEW ENCYCLOPEDIA OF TEXAS

ing a ten story office building, at a cost of about $700,000, in the near future.

Pierre Levy and associates have purchased a site in the 900 block on Main Street extending through to Commerce Street and will erect an eight story building to house a large motion picture theatre and offices.

The Citizens Hotel Company recently erected at Eighth Street between Main and Commerce Streets, the new Texas Hotel, which cost two million dollars. The company, made up entirely of Fort Worth citi- zens, paid $350,000 for the site, which is 100x120 feet. The hotel contains 450 guest rooms and is fifteen stories in height.

E. N. Schenecker has recently purchased a lot, 100x200 feet on East Seventh Street between Cal- houn and Jones Streets and announced his intentions of erecting an eight story build ng to house a whole- sale grocery establishment.

The United States Navy constructed a Helium gas plant two miles north of the city at a cost of four million dollars. Several petroleum refineries have been completed within the last few years and more are to be built. These new plants, when completed, will give Fort Worth an additional refining capacity of 75,000 barrels per day, and if present plans are carried out the total expenditure on these plants will be in excess of fifteen million dollars.

The Monnig Dry Goods Company has recently pur- chased a lot, 75x200 feet, extending through from Main Street to Commerce Street near Fifteenth Street, and will erect a seven story building to house its wholesale department.

W. C. Stripling, a dry goods merchant who owns the entire block between Main, Houston, First and Second Streets has made additions to his store which give him a seven story building covering the entire block.

The Chevrolet Motor Car Association in 1921 made an addition to its assembling plant which cost $250,000.

The Alexander Lumber Company has just com- pleted a plant for the manufacture of interchange- able unit houses, which cost $250,000.

The Texas Creosote Manufacturing Company has finished its plant in which it has invested $200,000.

The Star-Telegram, an evening paper, has erected a building at a cost of $≤00,000.

Oil well supply concerns in Fort Worth during the past two years have taken out permits for ware- houses which cost in excess of $2,000,000.

The city of Fort Worth is doing its share toward caring for the rapidly growing population. The filtration plant was recently completed by the city cost $300,000. During April, 1919, a bond issue of $1,890,000, was voted to provide for sewer, water and street improvements and extensions for the construc- tion of a sewage disposal plant.

Recently Tarrant County, of which Fort Worth is the county seat, and which already has the best road system in the state of Texas, voted $3,450,000 ad- ditional bonds for good roads.

The Southwestern Telegraph and Telephone Com- pany is spending $460,000 on improvements and ex- tensions on its system in the city and more than $1,000,000 on improvements in the long distance serv- ice to the various towns in Texas and Oklahoma oil fields.

Building operations in Fort Worth are limited at this time only by the inability to get more build- ers and laborers. Already a large army is employed and recruits are being sought to double this army if possible. New houses have been built and are being built in every part of the city, and yet the cry for more residences is becoming louder and louder as thousands after thousands of new homeseekers continue to pour into the city. Among the recently constructed buildings are: The twenty-story W. T. Waggoner Building, the twenty-four story F. & M. Bank Building, one of the tallest buildings in Texas, and the $2,000,000 Texas Hotel.

Fort Worth is growing and growing fast and seems in a fair way to realize the forecast that the population of the city will reach a quarter of a million people when the next census is taken.

Banks of a city may be considered an index to its prosperity and the growth of the Fort Worth banks are an indication of the city's rapid growth. They have more than 50,000 individual accounts and deposits are in excess of $50,000,000. Several of the banks have been compelled to enlarge their quarters to handle the business that has come to them and yet some of them continue to work in cramped quar- ters. There are six national and four state banks and not one of them has failed to share in the pros- perity caused by the growth of the city.

Fort Worth is superlative in a number of things, but among them may be mentioned its distribution facilities by means of the seventeen railroads and splendid paved highways extending in every direc- tion; the center of the oil industry of Texas, many of the largest producers having established their headquarters here; its refinery and pipe line facili- ties, reaching to the various oil fields of Texas, and Oklahoma; its packing houses, cotton gins and cotton seed and peanut oil mills; its industries of every kind and unexcelled general commercial conditions; its schools, which rank among the finest in the state, both in teaching talent and in buildings, and its cli- mate, water and people-everything that makes a city desirable as a home.

Fort Worth offers two special advantages to home seekers in its schools and churches. For grade and high school work there are a number of private and church schools in addition to the public schools, and for those wishing to take college courses there are no schools of higher education offering better advantages than the Texas Woman's College, under direction of the Methodist Church, and the Texas Christian University, under direction of the Christian Church.

Practically every denomination is represented among the churches of Fort Worth and each has a substantial following. Many of the congregations have built houses of worship that would be an ad- vantage to any city in the country and several have established and are conducting) institutional churches with great success. One church in the city has a membership roll of about 4,000 communicants and has the largest Sunday school in the world.

Fort Worth is the capital of the "land of liquid gold," not in the sense of the city where laws are made, but as a city which reflects in its culture and prosperity the contentment and happiness of a united commonwealth.

HISTORY OF FORT WORTH BANKS

By G. H. COLVIN Chairman of Board, F. & M. Bank

T HE growth and develop- ment of any communi- ty or state is commen- surate with the strength of its financial resources. Capi- tal and labor, in the hands of integrity and industry, make an irresistible combination, and a community so blessed with these forces can only go forward to success and bigger things.

The city of Fort Worth was fortunate to have within its bounds in its pioneer days such type of men; yet they dared to stake their judgment and loan their money on many a proposition for the up- building of their town that today would be consider- ered as foolhardy speculation. A study of these men and their methods reveals to a large extent the rea- son for the steady, sturdy and continuous growth of this very important city in the Lone Star State.

On the pioneer pages of History of this small Army Post, we find written the names of these men; Col. Van Winkle, Major K. M. Van Zandt, Thos. A. Tidball, Capt. M. B. Loyd, J. F. Ellis, W. J. Boaz, Capt. H. C. Edrington, J. Marklee, Jno. Nichols, A. B. Britton, S. W. Lomax and others. Of these men, only one today is with us; Maj. K. M. Van Zandt, still at the helm of the institution he organized, the only president this institution has ever had. The first bank interests were established here in 1872, W. J. Boaz and J. F. Ellis under the firm name of Boaz & Ellis conducted a general merchandise store and in connection with this did a loan and exchange business, which was at the time the principal func- tions of a bank. A little later Geo. H. Van Winkle and A. W. Wroten opened the private bank of Van Winkle & Co. The following year, Thos. A. Tidball, Wilson & Co., which was reorganized in the latter part of the same year to Tidball, Van Zandt & Co., with Tidball, Van Zandt, J. J. Jarvis and J. Peter Smith as members of the firm. After this reorgan- ization, in the same year, Capt. M. B. Loyd and J. Marklee formed the bank of Loyd, Marklee & Co., also known as the California and Texas Bank.

When the National Bank Act was passed in 1876, Capt. Loyd organized the First National Bank. La- ter the City National Bank was organized, and in 1882 W. J. Boaz and associates obtained the char- ter for the Traders National Bank.

The combined resources of the Fort Worth banks in 1882 totalled $1,502,959.52. The total resources of the Fort Worth banks today are over $65,000,- 000.00. Fort Worth deposits in 1882 were $915,000. Today the total deposits are $55,000,000.00.

Farmers and Mechanics National Bank Building, which on Completion in 1921 was the Tallest Building in Texas

In 1888 The Fort Worth Clearing House Associa- tion, was formed with a membership of six banks, The First National Bank, The City National Bank, The Traders National Bank, Fort Worth National Bank and Merchants National Bank. There are to- day ten member banks in the association; First National Bank, Fort Worth National Bank, Far- mers & Mechanics National Bank, Stock Yards Na- tional Bank, Continental Bank & Trust Company, Exchange State Bank, Texas State Bank, Ft Worth State Bank, Guaranty State Bank and National Bank of Commerce.

The daily clearings in. 1888 averaged about $45,- 000.00. Today, this average is nearer $3,000,000.00

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Fort Worth's New Skyline.

Buildings Costing Over $10,000,000.00 have been Erected in this Business District in the Past Two Years

100

HISTORY AND PROGRESS OF FORT WORTH

By J. H. ALLISON Formerly Proprietor of Fort Worth Record

F ORT WORTH is a won- derful city with a glow- ing future. The pioneers must have had a prophetic vision when they built their block houses on the banks of Trinity River and made it a haven of refuge for settlers when, as occasionally hap- pened, they were driven from their ranches and farms by Indians; the United States government looked ahead when it established a military post at this point in 1849 and gave it the name the city now bears; the cattlemen who made it their marketing point, the early day traders and the latter day mer- chants, the railroad men, the cap- tains of industry, the tourists who came to see and stayed because they saw the possibility for happy homes-all appear to have recog- nized the spot as most admirably located by reason of climate, geographical position and natural resources and advantages as the ideal place for residence, for com- merce, for agriculture, for a domi- nant station among the great cities of this fair land. And yet none of them knew and until very recently none has known- that they were establishing themselves in the "land of liquid gold."

For many years Fort Worth grew slowly, but even so, she has kept pace year after year with every other growing city of Texas, has outstripped many and now bids fair to outstrip all of them. As

a trading post it has attracted the ranchman from near and distant points, and the cow boys and the cow owners made periodical visits for both business and pleasure. Strong men located here, men who looked ahead, and they made it an industrial center, small at first, but having a foundation capable of sus- taining a large growth.

It was natural that having become established as one of the most enterprising and substantial cities of Texas, Fort Worth should have attracted the railroads. They came one after the other, until at this time thirteen trunk lines of railway converge at this point and radiate in seventeen different di- rections. With their connections they cover all points in Texas and all Oklahoma. Three lines lead to

Looking Across Lake Worth From the Meandering Road The Old Shriner's Mosque is Seen on the Farther Shore

Denver, three to New Mexico, five to St. Louis, four to Kansas City, five to Houston and Galveston and two to the Mexican border.

The railroad yards in Fort Worth have storage for 15,000 cars and none larger may be found South of Kansas City. About 80 per cent of all railroad traffic entering Texas passes through Fort Worth and more than one and one-quarter million freight cars are interchanged here annually.

The railroads and the steady growth of agriculture throughout the surrounding country contributed to the continued growth of Fort Worth and the city gained more and more until the population had reached close to one hundred thou- sand. Natural gas was piped in from Oklahoma fields, and cheap fuel, both gas and lignite coal from the Thurber mines, only a few miles away, give encouragement to indus- try. And then came the discovery of oil with Fort Worth in the center of the new oil field, and new men and new money poured in.

Forest Park is a Beautiful Area, Comprising Seventy-Five Acres. A Glimpse of the Zoo is Shown at the Right

101

NEW ENCYCLOPEDIA OF TEXAS

Time was when men sought for gold in the river beds and cradled it out of the sands, later they mined it in rocks which they crushed to extract the yellow metal, now they drive a drill many feet into the earth and penetrate to the pools where oil is to be found and then they realize the truth that they are living in the "land of liquid gold."

Fort Worth will not be dependent much longer

Bathing at the Municipal Beach, Lake Worth

on natural gas from Oklahoma, although that has served its purpose well. Two pipe lines now are being constructed, one by the government which purposes bringing gas of a superior quality from Petrolia, a few miles north, to manufacture argon gas or helium for use in balloons and another from the Ranger field, about one hundred miles to the west, which will bring to the city Texas gas for heating and power purposes.

The discovery of Texas oil fields adjacent to Fort Worth gave a new stimulus to the city. Oil de- velopers and oil producers flocked here from all parts of the country bringing money for investment not only in oil lands, but in pipe lines, in refineries, in new indus- tries and in homes. Deposits in the banks doubled and trebled and kept on growing and new banks were established. The Pierce Oil Corporation had a refinery in operation here with a daily ca- pacity of 15,000 barrels before the discovery of the new oil fields, the Magnolia Petroleum Company had a refinery with a daily capacity of 12,000 barrels and the Gulf Re- fining Company had a refinery with a daily capacity of 6,000 barrels, a total daily capacity of 33,000 bar- rels. Since the new oil fields were opened ten new refineries have been constructed or are in progress of construction which will increase the daily refining capacity to 75,000 barrels and other refineries hav- ing plans to increase the daily out- put by about 15,000 barrels are planning to locate here.

Upwards of one billion dollars are said to have been paid for oil leases in the Fort Worth area of the West Texas oil field and at this time hundreds

of wells are being drilled in every part of the field. Many of these wells become producers, some of them prove to be merely dry holes, the latter often oc- curring within a few feet of a good producing well, but the $50,000 or so expended in a dry hole is not lost, for the money has been paid out in large wages to the men employed on the work and through them has passed into the various channels of trade, and as a general thing the company which has paid out its money for a dry hole, makes it up and much more too, soon afterwards by bringing in a good producer.

One of Fort Worth's greatest at- tractions is Lake Worth, said to be the largest artificial body of water in Texas. It is about 14 miles in length and two miles wide and covers 5,000 acres. It was con- structed by damming the west fork of the Trinity River and impounds thirty billion gallons of water, suffi- cient to provide for the needs of a city having 500,000 population. The dam is 3,300 feet in length and the spillway is 700 feet long. The water is soft and may be used in boilers. By the use of an elab- orate filtration system, the water attains a high degree of purity and is distributed to every part of the city.

The lake is one of the chief pleasure resorts of the city. It has a bathing beach where thousands go during the summer to enjoy the inland sea, this bathing beach being sufficiently distant from the intake to the filters to avoid any risk of contaminat- ing the water. The lake is popular for boating, pro- vides splendid fishing for those who like that sport, and the shores on every side are dotted with summer homes and camps, in addition to several chautauqua grounds. It is in fact one of the most delightful recreation spots to be found anywhere.

Fort Worth's trade territory is very large, extend-

Neil P. Anderson Building, Home of the Grain and Cotton Exchange, as well as Many Dealers in Grain and Cotton Products

ing throughout North Texas, far up through the Panhandle country to the very edge of Colorado and New Mexico, embraces the greater part of West Texas and reaches far into Oklahoma.

102

WICHITA FALLS, THE CITY THAT FAITH BUILT By WICHITA FALLS CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

R EALIZING the discovery of great oil fields in Wichita County as a remarkable bit of good fortune, and also as a commanding op- portunity for new civic advancement, Wichita Falls has started activity on an enlarged program of solid, substantial improvements. It is ambitious as a city to become known, not only for its wealth in oil, wheat, cattle and cotton, but as a delightful city in which to live and to rear children, as well as to make a living.

While oil has played a big part in the growth of Wichita Falls, it is a mistake to consider that it is merely an oil town. Wich- ita Falls had 8,200 people in 1910 and in 1917, before the discovery of the Burk- burnett oil field, it had in- creased more than 100 per cent to a population of 18,- 000 based upon its agricul- tural and jobbing and manufacturing resources. Following the discovery of oil in 1918 at Burkburnett, Wichita Falls leaped into the city class and the 1920 census gave it a population of 40,079. This made the percentage of growth in the ten years from 1910 to 1920, 388 per cent.

WICHITA FALLS, TEXAS.

A Night View of Wichita Falls

The oil fields of Burkburnett, Iowa Park, Electra, Petrolia, Holliday and other parts of northwest Texas, with a daily production of nearly one hun- dred thousand barrels are an important factor in Wichita Falls. Wichita County produces more oil than any other county in the United States. There are about thirty refineries in the Wichita Falls oil district, thirteen of these being in Wichita Falls. Wichita Falls is the headquarters of hundreds of oil companies and of thousands of individuals who fol- low the oil business in one or another of its various phases. New oil producing territory is being steadily developed.

Wichita Falls does not look to oil alone for her substantial prosperity. The city is a wholesale center for a large portion of northwest Texas, and southwest Oklahoma, and is constantly adding to its wholesale trade. It is the retail center of a pros- perous district. There are about fifty manufactur- ing plants in the city, their products including flour, motor trucks, glass jars, window glass, refinery products, brooms and brick and tile material, oil field tools and equipment, building material, roasted coffee, foundry products and other articles. The Wichita truck, manufactured in Wichita Falls, is sold throughout the civilized world, and the scope of

its distribution is scarcely less extensive than that of other Wichita Falls products.

Wichita Falls is the center of a prosperous farm- ing community, for which the city is both the mar- ket and the source of supplies. Wheat, oats, corn, forage crops, cotton, fruit and truck are produced and the farm production is to be greatly increased when the $4,500,000 irrigation project is completed. Already large tracts near the city are under irriga- tion, and such records as $7,500 worth of melons, $400 of tomatoes, 150 bushels of sweet potatoes and 1,000 bushels of cucumbers, from one acre, have been made. The new irrigation project will add 150,000 acres of irrigated land and will also insure a perma- nent ample water supply for the city. Grain finds a ready market in Wichita Falls, there being four elevators with a combined capacity of 1,180,000 bushels.

Wichita Falls is division headquarters for both the Ft. Worth and Denver, and Missouri, Kansas and Texas systems, which con- trol seven of the rail outlets. More than 1,000 men are employed in the offices, shops and yards of these railroads. Two new railroads now reach Wichita Falls, one is the Wichita Falls, Ranger and Gulf, financed largely by home capital, con- necting with the oil fields of central West Texas; the other, the Rock Island decently built from Wau- rika, Okla.

No city in the United States saw more new build- ings erected, in proportion to population, than did Wichita Falls in 1919-1920, it being estimated that a total of more than $20,000,000 was expended.

The city school system comprises a high school, a junior high school, seven ward schools and a negro school. During 1920 a total of $300,000 was spent by the Board of Education in erecting new buildings. There are 30 churches and missions in the city, and the larger denominations are housed in splendid buildings of worship. One congregation recently constructed a $250,000 building and two others have plans under way for buildings rivaling this.

Wichita Falls Chamber of Commerce is stronger, numerically and financially, than that of any other city in America of less than 100,000 population, hav- ing a membership of 2,500, and an annual revenue of $60,000. Wichita Falls offers innumerable oppor- tunities for commerce, industries, manufactories and agriculture, and invites all those who are in any way interested to write the Chamber of Commerce.

Skyline of Wichita Falls today. The Oil Metropolis of North Texas

103

WICHITA FALLS IRRIGATION PROJECT

By J. A. KEMP Chairman of Board, City National Bank of Commerce

A N important election was held on Septem- ber 7, 1920, by the Wichita County Water Im- provement District No. 1, which comprises the city of Wichita Falls and some acre- age of farm lands to the north and to the south of the city, and voted bonds in the amount of $4,500,000 to com- plete the irrigation project. The bonds have been sold and the construction work done. This project furnishes the city of Wichita Falls with a permanent and adequate supply of pure water and also irrigates approxi - mately 150,000 acres of the rich Wichita Valley land lying on both sides of the Wichita River in the vicinity of Wichita Falls.

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New encyclopedia of Texas, volume 1, Part 19

Author: Davis, Ellis A. Publication date: 1926 Publisher: Dallas, Tex. : Texas development bureau, [1926?] Number of Pages: 1416

Author: Davis, Ellis A.
Publication date: 1926
Publisher: Dallas, Tex. : Texas development bureau, [1926?]
Number of Pages: 1416